“On blogging”

Over at GROTA, Kurt has been running a series On blogging, which tells people what they may want to think about if they want to start their own blog. A couple days ago Kurt discussed advertising. That’s the sort of thing that happens when you start advertising for the ticket brokers. What they don’t mention in the fine print is that you will also be giving them a tiny piece of your soul. If you look around at your favorite blogs, you might notice that some of them have ticket broker ads. Lots and lots of ticket broker ads. They might have so many ticket broker ads, in fact, that they could be raking in thousands of dollars a year. Seriously. If you look around GROTA, you’ll see that their presence on this blog is minimal. That’s because text link ads are The Devil. They detract from the value of your blog, and if you ever have any hopes of selling serious ad space to serious companies, if they take one look at your blog and see text links everywhere they will never drop dollar one on you. I trust that Kurt knows what he’s talking about here and said as much in the comments. My comment was rather long so I’ll take out the important parts. Kurt, I trust you that these are good opinions for a long-term blog, but how many blogs are long-term endeavors? Very, very few. Most people start a blog, write a post or two and never go back. Sometimes a Cubs blog may last as long as 3 or 4 months and then it’s gone. Sometimes a year. Most people just don’t want to spend the time after awhile to keep up what they set out to do. This is understandable, and it makes your advice rather poor in my opinion. GROTA has been around for what, 5 years? 6 years? How many Cubs blogs were around then that are still around today and how many are under the same “ownership”?—me Perhaps you guys can help, but the Cubs blog world changes almost on a daily basis it seems. When I check out the site stats it seems I find a new Cubs blog that has clicked on a link to get here more often than you’d think. Half the Cubs blogs around today won’t be around next year, if not fewer than half. In order to profit under the advice you have given, a blog is going to have to be around at least a couple of years in the first place and then it’s going to take smaller profits than it otherwise could by selling those text links. And then in all likelihood the person who started the blog will quit, if he hasn’t done so 3 or 4 years earlier.—me I go on to say that I have no idea how long this blog will be around and any long-term plan for it would be mostly useless. I have no clue when ACB will shut down. It could be later today. It could be in 25 years. I don’t have any idea, but I do know that ACB is more likely to be around in 1 year than someone who just starts their blog today. It’s even more likely to be around in 2, 3, or more years than the one who begins today. The fact is that most blogs don’t stick around. For only a few people is blogging seen as a business. I also comment on how much money ACB made during 2008. ACB generated approximately $5000 in 2008. About half of that was from text links. It’s awfully hard to decline $300, $400, or $500 when they come offering. Despite that income, 2008 was the year in which I finally saw all of my investment in the blog returned to me with a little left for a profit. Thanks to you for hooking me up with Kevin to redesign the site, I’ve reduced my monthly fees from about $150 to $160 down to about $15 per month. I wasn’t paying that $150 per month all the years of the blog, but the last 18 months or so I was and that adds up. I actually had my taxes done last night so I had to find the exact amount I had made and it was $4563. I also spent nearly $1400 on hosting fees and another $400 in miscellaneous costs. I made a profit of just under $2800 in 2008, but as I mentioned in the quote above, I had received little in return prior to 2008. This isn’t really anyone’s business, but I do feel an obligation at the same time to let you all know how much money I have made because that money comes from your time spent here (and I’m very thankful for that). In the years prior to 2008 I spent just over $2000 in hosting and other various expenses so I haven’t even profited $1000 in 5 years. Also, due to the economy, some ticket brokers will not be renewing their ads so it’s unlikely that ACB generates as much revenue in 2009 as it did in 2008. Who knows though? This is important because GROTA is a busier site than ACB in terms of visitors. We have more page views as a result of the discussion that goes on here. If GROTA is just now getting to the point where they may be able to attract serious advertisers, ACB would not be. Also, there is no way that you could make as much money from those serious advertisers right away. It would take in all reality probably a few years before that happens. So in the meantime you’ve lost a bunch of money if you decide to go this route. If I stop taking the $2200 immediately and don’t get serious advertisers for 3 years, I’ve lost $6600 (at least) just for the hopes that a serious advertiser will place ads on my site. To make that money up over 3 years, the new ads would have to generate over $13,200. That’s almost $5000 per year and in 6 years from now I’m no better than I would have been had I kept the text link ads. I’d be losing money until the year 2015 at which point I’d just break even. I can’t imagine I’ll still be doing this in 6 years. I’m not even sure this is a smart business plan as was said (see below). Blogs are usually extra money for whoever is running them. If you want my advice, take the money you can get now because you’re probably not going to be blogging when it comes time to make serious money. Or your blog just won’t be good enough. Or you could be dead. Or in prison. Or married. The fact is that you’re unlikely to ever make enough money from blogging about the Cubs to support yourself and your family and there are way too many things that could happen before you get serious advertisers to consider Kurt’s comments as good advice. Further down in the comments, Kevin (who redesigned this site a few months ago) responded to one of my comments: Do or Die Submitted by Kevin on February 3, 2009 - 2:36pm. Actually it’s way more complicated than Kurt explains here, the real logic is a whole book. The biggest obstacle GROTA has faced in bulking up revenues is the tempation of that $500 offer, and when you take money from little fish the big fish don’t want to know you, there is no middle ground compromise. If you want to make money you need to deal with the right people, plain and simple. You’re right to say it’s a long-term plan though, but any business plan should be long-term. The quick bucks route for a short lived site? If that works for you then so be it, but it isn’t a viable long-term business plan. I emphasized that sentence because almost every site is a short-lived one. The overwhelming majority of sites die off within a matter of days and certainly within a matter of a few years. Also, why should a Cubs blog be a long-term business? For that matter, why should it even be a business? The only long-term plan I would consider is one that has to do with quality. That may in fact lead to a shorter lived blog, but I am confident it’s likely to produce far greater content (quality) in its life than the one focused on money. Besides, this has already gone on much longer than I imagined. It’s already made me more money than I imagined. The moment I begin to think of this site as a business is the day this site will shut down. Don’t get me wrong, because I like to make money just as much as the next guy. It’s just that this isn’t a business. This is a Cubs blog. Nothing more. Nothing less. As a business, you’re looking to make contacts and since your blog is about the Cubs those contacts are going to be within the Cubs organization or closely tied to them. One of the things that makes blogs what they are is that you can expect to read an opinion or information that doesn’t come from the company itself. If you say something too negative you lose those contacts. Take a look at Bleed Cubbie Blue for a perfect example. All throughout the 2005 and 2006 seasons Al was toeing the company line and had nothing negative to say about then Cubs manager Dusty Baker. In fact, as you all know, he would go out of his way to often compliment the man when no compliment was deserving. It wasn’t until Andy MacPhail left and it became obvious, if not already known that the Cubs would not be keeping Baker around, that Al began talking negatively about him. Obviously this was done to protect his interests. He wasn’t going to say anything that may upset the company he’s writing about because he runs his site like a business and needs the Cubs approval in order to further his business. You can’t possibly write a blog expressing your own true opinions if you see your blog as a business. What happens if I say Jim Hendry is a fat, drunk asshole (even if I don’t mean it)? Well, Jim Hendry won’t be too happy with me and if he’s the contact I most want, I can forget about saying things like that. Or, back to Al, I would have to say that the talent is there and so and so is a proven manager and I think we can still win. Something along those lines. Am I the only one who noticed a difference in Paul Sullivan’s tone once it became obvious the Tribune was selling the team? I hope GROTA is successful in turning their blog into a profitable business. From what I know about the guys over there they seem to be decent people. I also hope they realize that the higher quality sites are less profitable than the low quality sites. There’s a reason why BCB makes more money than any other Cubs blog: it appeals to the most people and is therefore one of the worst ones around. Appealing to all Cubs fans is not necessarily a good thing.